" Looking at plant-based foods, plants can do it better and more cheaply, Imagine what happens when we get to version six "

Mark Langley is a Partner at Unovis, one of the leading investment firms in the alternative protein space. Their mission is to disrupt our broken food system

Their portfolio includes 39 companies including Beyond Meat,  Oatly, Memphis Meats, Blue Nalu, and SuperMeat.

In this conversation, we discuss the risks and rewards for plant-based vs cultivated meat companies.  Mark has a very informed opinion with deep expertise investing in this space. His perspective is very valuable to would-be entrepreneurs looking to enter this industry.

Jim Mellon is an investor, entrepreneur, and author.  His most recent company, Agronomics, is invested in over a dozen of the most exciting startups in the cultivated meat and plant-based meat industry.

In this far-ranging interview, we dive into the investment opportunity that he's articulated in his newest book "Moo's Law: An Investor's Guide to the New Agrarian Revolution." Jim believes food technology will be one of the major investment themes of the next 50 years.

This interview was recorded for Protein Report - you can check out the original video interview here.

Also, check out my analysis of Blue Nalu, part of the Agronomics portfolio, "Reading the Tea Leaves for the First Cultivated Meat IPO" also on Protein Report.

Vow envisions a world where food is completely abstracted away from any animal species. To this end they have 11 different species cell lines…..with more on the way. In this episode I speak with George and Tim, the founders, about how they met each other and came up with the idea for such a unique vision of our food future.

Vow is Hiring!

Tim's Ted Talk

Vow's Website (sadly Vow.com is taken by a dating website, more on that in the episode!)

"There are no viable solutions, right now, to really make cultivated meat scalable and affordable. The challenge on cost is on the ingredients side." - Cai Linton

Cai Linton is the CEO and co-founder of Multus Media, which is developing a solution to the most expensive component of bringing cultivated meat to the world - the growth media.

Multus Media has had a lot of initial success, and Cai discusses their experience in Indie Bio, one of the premier biotech accelerators in the world. We also get into the science and economics of developing growth media for cultivated meat.

One of the things I personally found very interesting is the nuance of media across different species and at different stages of development. Cai also paints a picture of their vision to bring bespoke media solutions for cultivated meat companies

Multus Media is looking to grow their team!! If you’ve dreamed of a career in London developing the technology to help change the way the world eats, check them out.

Follow Multus Media on twitter @multus media and check out their recently updated website at multus.media.

John Pattison and Ian Johnson are the founding team behind Cultured Decadence. They are focused on developing cultivated crustacean meat, and are unique in having been alumni of two other cultivated meat startups. Ian was previously at Finless Foods and John at New Age Meats.

They talk about why they left the Bay Area to relocate to Madison, Wisconsin to build their company.

Forward Biolabs - co-working life science lab for biotech startups.
We also explore the unique challenges and opportunities in developing lobsters, crabs,  and other crustaceans instead of pursuing land-based animals for cultivated meat.

Cultured Decadence Linkedin

Ron Shigeta is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He was the  Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer of biotech accelerator IndieBio and played a key role in kick-starting “Startup Biotech” as we know it today. During his tenure, he led early-stage investments in 80+ companies across biotech. IndieBio alumni include Clara Food, Memphis Meats,  Geltor, Finless Foods, New Age Meats, and many others.  Today, the portfolio is valued at $3.5B.

He is also the Co-founder of Wild Earth,  a healthy plant-based pet food that was featured on Shark Tank and secured funding from Mark Cuban. He advises numerous companies and conducts venture capital due diligence. 

Ron's Linkedin Page

"Lab Grown Meat Is Scaling Like the Internet" - medium post

Wild Earth - Check out their pitch on Shark Tank.

Indie Bio

"We figured out if you can be a cell line provider, you can democratize cell lines and make them available to a lot of different producers" - Carolina Bluguermann

Carolina Bluguermann is co-founder and Chief Science Officer (CSO) at Cell Farm  - Latin America's first cultivated meat startup.

From their Buenos Aires-based lab, Cell Farm develops stem cell lines using Argentian cattle. These cell lines can be used by cultivated meat companies to produce  Argentian beef.

In this conversation, we discuss accelerator and incubator programs they've participated In on 3 continients - Asia, South America, and Europe.

We also dive into the science a bit to cover the types of cells being expoored for cultivated meat:

1. Embryonic Stem Cells
2. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
3. Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Also, as a heads up for anyone aspiring for startup life if Buenos Aires - they are hiring soon!

Now onto the show

 Website: https://cellfarmfoodtech.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cellfarmfoodtech/?hl=en

"Through our work, we can help every single company working on this on the planet  bring products to market  and improve people's lives"-  Lejjy Gafour, CEO, Future Fields

Matt and Jalene  Anderson-Baron and Lejjy Gafour are the three co-founders of Future Fields, based out of Edmonton, Alberta.

In this conversation, they tell their story of  the entrepreneurial pivot - how they transitioned from bringing chicken to market to their current B2B strategy to develop the growth medium empowering other companies to produce cultivated meat.

We dive into their experience in YCombinator, fundraising, and how their Eureka moment struck at a Tim Horton's. 

Future Fields is growing and hiring!!!!

Follow them on Twitter @makingmeat

"Don’t to be ashamed to be scrappy" -  Lisa Feria, CEO of Stray Dog Capital. 

Stray Dog Capital is one of the leading venture capital firms in the field of plant, synthetic biology, and cultivated meat. They have invested in many of the most influential companies in the industry I've discussed on the show, including Memphis Meats, Mosa Meat, SuperMeat, Aleph Farms, and Blue Nalu. They also have an extensive portfolio in plant-based protein companies, investing in Beyond Meat, No Evil Foods, and more.

In this conversation, Lisa and I go deep into what entrepreneurs should think about when they are pitching their startups to VCs. She also highlights some of the mistakes she sees companies make and why differentiation is more challenging for cultivated meat companies than plant-based counterparts. Lisa also shares why she gets more out of a 30-minute pitch meeting than a 1-hour pitch. 

If you’re an entrepreneur in cultivated meat or really any industry, this episode has tons of insights on how to optimize and prepare your pitch.

Twitter @straydogcapital

https://straydogcapital.com

Mariliis Holm is the co-founder of Sustainable Food Ventures where she leads scientific diligence and operations.

She is the former Head of Food Science of Finless Foods, a cultivated seafood startup. She is also the co-founder of Nonfood and previously worked in R&D at Mondelez International (France) and at IFF (Netherlands).

In this episode we cover:

• The perspective of investors in cultivated meat
• Cultured Meat Symposium Conference 2020
• 36 Questions to Fall In Love (or find a co-founder) 
• The first cultivated meat companies In the SFV portfolio
• The biotech startup scene in North Carolina

Connect with Mariliis on Twitter @SFV_RollingFund and Linkedin